


Do Not Go Softly Into That Good Night

by flamebirds



Series: Batfam Week 2018 [4]
Category: Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Batfam Week 2018, Lazarus Pit, Short, TITANS TOMORROW IS TECHNICALLY AN AU, i have had way too much coffee to function
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-17 09:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamebirds/pseuds/flamebirds
Summary: Rage, rage against the dying of the light.(Batfam Week 2018, Day 4: AU)





	Do Not Go Softly Into That Good Night

There's a scream, loud and shrill and violent and full of pain, so much pain, and Bette knows it belongs to her. It's a familiar sound that's rung around her head a hell of a lot more than she'd care to admit and it's one that she's never supposed to use. It shows weakness, Kathy had said, it would make her seem like an easy target.

Well, let whoever made her scream think she's an easy target. She'll just rip that idea out of their mind with a mean right hook, like she always does, like she's been trained to do.

Her head emerges from the water. The green water, she realizes with a start, as everything comes crashing down upon her like a tidal wave. Dick. Tim. Stephanie. Barbara. Her death at the hands of Duela. It all rushes in like hot lava and she clutches her head, hands pulling out her hair.

Someone's trying to stop her. It takes her a moment to realize it, but someone is, and when she looks up, it's not who she wants. She wants-- needs-- Kate or Bruce, or Helena. What she does not need and will probably never need is Slade Wilson.

But behind him is Charlie, alive and well. And behind her, Cassandra is fighting Tim. Bette isn't sure who she's supposed to be rooting for but she has a feeling that it's her little sister. Her mind is still a tattered mess, just barely coming back to life, and memories of exactly what her baby brother became are slow to take shape. Well, no, that's not quite right; it's more that she's slow to accept it.

Everything is a fucked up mess and there's really only one word that clings to her fragmented mind: family. She needs them. She needs Steph and Harper and Helena and Luke and Duke and Damian and all of them and it takes far too little time for the memory of their deaths to flood her brain like a tsunami and then she's screaming and screaming and screaming and Slade's there, trying to stop her from lashing out, but all she sees is red whenever Tim steps into her line of vision.

And then he lets out a sound of pain and it's like it all stops. She stops thrashing in her uncle's arms and gives him a soft, controlled nod. He lets her go and she steps towards her battling siblings and her hand rests upon Tim's shoulder.

He's hugging her before she can even blink and, almost instinctively, she hugs him back. In a moment, she'll remember. In a moment, the world will be broken and she will try her best to fix it.

For now, though, her baby brother is crying and she can't help but join him.


End file.
